Niue Island Map

LOCATION: The westernmost of the Cook Islands, 240 miles east of Tonga in the South Pacific Ocean.

AREA: 100 square miles, or about 1.5 times larger than Washington, D.C.

POPULATION: Less than 2,000

DISCOVERED: Samoans settled the island around AD 900. According to tradition, a war party from Tonga arrived in the 16th century. In 1774, Captain James Cook sighted Niue but was refused landing three times by Niuean warriors. Cook charted Niue and named it Savage Island.

GOVERNMENT: Although geographically part of the Cook Islands, Niue is an administratively separate, self-governing territory in free association with New Zealand.